Report finds many NY bridges are in need of repair

1of3A view of Interstate 787, looking south from the top of the Quackenbush Garage on Thursday, Oct. 18, 2018, in Albany, N.Y. (Paul Buckowski/Times Union)Paul Buckowski2of3Architect Mathew Hurff stands near one of his projects, the bridge from the old clubhouse to the 1863 Club Thursday July 25, 2019at the Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. Photo Special to the Times Union by Skip Dickstein3of3In this Aug. 1, 2019, photo, traffic passes under a sign for the Gov. Mario M. Cuomo Bridge on the New York State Thruway in Nyack, N.Y. The New York State Department of Transportation said Thursday, Aug. 15, 2019 that roughly year-old signs for the suburban bridge named after the former governor are being patched over because his middle initial is missing. (Peter Carr/The Journal News via AP)Peter Carr

ALBANY – Nearly one in 10 bridges in the Capital Region are in poor condition, according to a new report from a national transportation research group.

The report, released Wednesday by the D.C.-based nonprofit TRIP, identifies nearly 70 bridges in the Capital Region in poor or structurally deficient condition. While a handful of bridges ranked the worst are closed or temporarily blocked off, other poorly rated bridges still service more than 350,000 drivers each day.

Among the worst ranked and most traveled: Albany’s Interstate 90 bridge crossing Broadway and an Interstate 87 bridge that crosses a rail line about 2.5 miles north of Ravena.

The region would need millions of dollars to rehabilitate or replace the bridges, many of which are aging and growing weaker by the day, transportation officials said. And the older a bridge gets, the more costly it is to fix.

“It’s an opportunity for New York state and for businesses and industries to use this … as a roadmap to find a way to make sure that our roads and bridges represent what it is to be the Empire State: the hub of commerce and industry,” Johnny Evers, the director of government affairs for the Business Council of New York, said at a press conference at the Capitol on Wednesday.

The report evaluates bridges 20 feet or longer and includes Albany, Rensselaer and Saratoga counties. The bridges are rated on a scale from zero to nine – nine being the best possible rating – and those ranked four or below are considered poor or worse.

An accompanying assessment also examines the health of bridges statewide, where 10 percent of all bridges are in poor condition – the 12th-highest in the United States. Many structures have either approached or surpassed 50 years old – the typical design life for a bridge, according to the report.

Researchers and transportation officials do not pin deteriorating conditions on local governments – instead, they say, a lack of funding hinders local officials from revamping bridges in need of repair.

Carolyn Bonifas Kelly, an associate director for TRIP and the report's author, said local officials are “doing a tremendous job with the funds they have available,” but a statewide transportation funding shortfall prevents major renovation.

The federal government also neglects transportation infrastructure while configuring budgets, she said, urging Congress to renew public funds for long-term transportation projects when the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act expires next year.

“Unless New York can increase transportation funding at the local, state and federal levels, bridge conditions will continue to deteriorate, and the future cost of repairing these bridges could grow even higher,” she said.

The Federal Highway Administration estimates that the state would need $3.6 billion to replace or fix bridges with a “poor” or worse rating. State Sen. Tim Kennedy, D-Buffalo, who chairs the Committee on Transportation, promised to push for additional funding to upgrade local infrastructure.

“Now, more than ever, we need to ensure that we’re dedicating resources to local infrastructure that is desperately in need of repair and maintenance,” Kennedy said in a release. “Taxpayer dollars must be put to work to improve our local community.”

Mark Eagan, the president and CEO of the Capital Region Chamber, added that local elected officials should make transportation funding a “top priority,” warning that continued deterioration would hurt the local economy.

In the meantime, local governments are imposing height and weight restrictions or closing lanes on deteriorating bridges.

That could translate to costly and timely detours for a slew of drivers, including those transporting cargo or large groups of people. In more serious cases, decaying bridges could cause damage to vehicles or fatal accidents, officials said.

“Without increased and reliable transportation funding, numerous projects to improve and preserve aging bridges in the Capital Region and statewide will not move forward, hampering New York’s ability to efficiently and safely move people and goods,” Will Wilkins, the executive director of TRIP, said in the release.

Cayla Harris is based at the Capitol in Albany covering politics for the Times Union. She graduated in May 2019 from the George Washington University, where she studied journalism and Spanish. During her time in D.C., she interned for the Hearst Washington bureau. Reach her at cayla.harris@timesunion.com